


Crumbling Down

by elsmith



Category: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types, Hannibal Lecter Tetralogy - Thomas Harris
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:42:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27268930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elsmith/pseuds/elsmith
Summary: After Paul Millander slips away, Grissom gets a visit from the past.Early CSI season 1 crossover with Hannibal (not any specific version).





	Crumbling Down

It had been a really long week. Grissom was used to those, but this week was definitely near the top of the list. A second “bathtub suicide” in as many months, and the suspect – Paul Millander – had slipped through his fingers. His team knew he was frustrated, but they couldn’t fathom how much Millander’s smooth disappearance weighed on Grissom’s conscience. He should have known. He should have _known_ , and he hadn’t, and Millander had escaped.

Gil supposed that he should be more concerned with Millander’s apparent attempt to frame him by planting his fingerprint at the latest murder scene, but that barely registered on his “I should be alarmed” scale. If only Millander knew. He didn’t – no one did – but that was sort of the point. 

Grissom’s frustration with himself was the current cause of his late arrival at work. He could tell that he was the last one in, which was sure to send some questioning glances his way. He had a reputation for always being early…assuming he ever left work in the first place.

After dropping his bag in his office, Griss made his way to the multipurpose meeting room so he could hand out assignments. He flipped through them as he walked, not terribly impressed with the night’s offerings. It wasn’t that he _wanted_ “better” crimes for his team to solve, but they were scientists and a challenge was always appreciated.

Grissom did not glance up from the list of DBs until he walked through the lounge door. The team looked tense, and it only took him a moment to understand why. Three men in drab suits were standing around the table while his team hovered anxiously at the edges of the room. Catching the eye of the squat, serious man in the middle, Grissom felt his fist clench around the papers in his hand as the world dropped from under his feet. 

“Hi, Will.” Unit Chief Jack Crawford stood in his lab, smiling pleasantly, as if this was not the end of Grissom’s world.

It took several seconds for him to remember to breathe, but that was enough for his team to stir into action.

“You all right, Griss?” Nick asked, genuine concern coloring his lovely Texan drawl. The others shifted uncomfortably and shared uncertain glances at his failure to respond to either man.

He took a deep breath, told himself he could have a breakdown later, and sent a steely glare toward Crawford.

“You promised.”

Jack had the _nerve_ to look chagrined, when Grissom knew very well that he wasn’t sorry at all and never would be. For Jack, the ends _always_ justified whatever and _who_ ever he had to throw to the wolves to get there.

“I know I did, Will. You know I wouldn’t be here if there were any other way.”

If his world wasn’t still shattered underneath him, Gil would laugh. He’d heard that one before. It was bullshit then and bullshit now.

“Excuse me, Agent Crawford,” Sara piped up. “You keep calling Grissom ‘Will’, but his name is _Gil_ Grissom.”

He felt his eyes slide closed with some kind of emotion – they were already brewing into a jumbled, unidentifiable maelstrom at the mere presence of Crawford – as Sara reminded him that this was happening in front of his entire team. If there was a way to get out of having to explain anything to them, he couldn’t think of it.

Crawford’s genial grin turned rueful at Sara’s inquiry, his head titled in question towards Gil.

“Go ahead, you being here at all already means it’s over.” Grissom was resigned that his life in Vegas was already irrevocably changed. He could tell that Jack wanted to roll his eyes but also needed to make a good impression on the CSI team. That was curious. Why would the agent in charge of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, formerly the Behavioral Science Unit, of the FBI need to impress a bunch of local CSIs?

“He’s Gil Grissom _now_ ,” Crawford began, “but when we worked together at the Bureau his name was Will Graham.”

Gil was surprised that Jack managed to keep the glee out of his voice at this revelation while he observed the CSIs’ reactions. 

Their stares burned. It had been years since he’d felt this exposed, this watched, but it wasn’t anything new. Avoiding judging eyes, or worse – pitying – had been one of the main reasons he had changed his name and disappeared into the neon lights of Las Vegas.

“Working for the FBI? _Griss?_ ” Nick was incredulous, as Grissom was notorious for his dislike of federal agents.

“Will Graham?” Sara questioned. “Where have I heard that name before?”

Grissom was more than a little surprised that his star pupil didn’t immediately know.

Catherine and Warrick, though. He could tell that they knew. Both had that look people got, back before he’d come to Vegas; that mix of pity, disgust, and just a touch of fear. Warrick made eye contact with Grissom as he answered Sara, gaze steady.

“He’s the agent who took down Hannibal the Cannibal.” Sharp inhalations escaped everyone except Catherine and Jack.

Nick uttered a shocked, “What the hell?”

Even the two other suits were visibly surprised, which told Grissom that Crawford hadn’t shared with them who they were in Vegas to see.

Sara turned shocked eyes to him. “Is that true, Grissom?”

A dull pressure was forming behind his left eye, promising to be a migraine in the near future. Finally breaking Warrick’s eye contact, he turned to Sara. He was so incredibly angry at Jack for making this conversation necessary. He had hoped, naively, that he would manage to go the rest of his life without ever talking about that part of his past.

Catherine was not content to keep her silence any longer as he took his time answering.

“Is it true that you’re Graham?” she pressed. For once, he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Her usually expressive features were devoid of any clues to her feelings.

“Yes, it’s true,” he said. “But I didn’t want to be him anymore.”

“He caught two others.” Crawford looked pleased, and Grissom knew that this whole encounter was going exactly like the agent wanted it to. He still didn’t know what Jack’s goal was and he hated that.

“Other serial killers?” Nick asked, over his shock and interested in the dirt.

“Garrett Hobbs and Francis Dolarhyde, that Tooth Fairy business a while back.”

Grissom yanked his glasses off and pinched between his eyes, hoping to dim the pain that was pulsating there.

“Jack, why are you here? You swore to me you’d never contact me again. Never again, you said.”

“We have reason to believe Lecter is in Vegas, or will be soon,” Crawford had his answer ready immediately, and his voice finally reflected the gravity of the situation.

So that’s why the FBI was here in his crime lab. That’s why Jack fucking Crawford showed up on his doorstep more than a decade after he swore an oath that he would never ask for Grissom’s help again. It’s the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard, but Grissom was nowhere near laughing at the absurdity. Even if it _were_ true, it wouldn’t change the fact that Crawford had just exposed almost every secret he desperately wanted to keep. This couldn’t be undone. Gil’s jaw tightened as he contemplated the fact that his team now knew about his past for no reason.

“No he isn’t,” he gritted.

“Will--”

“The whole reason I moved to Las Vegas in the first place is because this is the one place on earth Lecter would never step foot in,” he interrupted. “And I can’t imagine that’s changed.”

“He’d come here for Starling. For you.”

That was a surprise. Grissom hadn’t thought of the erstwhile Agent Starling at all, but now that Jack brought her up he wondered why.

Seeing that Grissom didn’t have a comment, Jack continued. “You know that she...left with him? It was in the news.”

He nodded. Gil had seen the news, absorbed the fact that Hannibal had escaped and somehow convinced an agent to run off with him, and then turned the TV off and tried his very best to never think of it again.

Jack heaved a sigh and slumped down in his chair. “We’ve been trying to track them. We don’t know what happened to set her off, but we have evidence that Starling is in Vegas.”

Grissom wasn’t sure what that had to do with him, or even Lecter, but he didn’t interrupt.

“We believe she’s here for you.” For once, Grissom believed Jack’s grave tone was genuine.

“I…what? Why?”

“Again, we’re not a hundred percent on any of this, Will, but we think she found out about your past with Lecter.”

“Wouldn’t an agent already be aware of that?” Sara asked, abruptly reminding Grissom that the others were still in the room. If he hadn’t been in shock he would have made them leave before letting Crawford continue.

“Yeah, the catching him and getting injured part she knew. We think she found out about the rest.”

Crawford let that sit, but the others were still not following. Grissom knew what he was saying, though, and he couldn’t make his body move to object to continuing the discussion.

“There’s more? What, something the FBI wanted to keep from the press?” Warrick asked, face as inscrutable as Catherine’s. Distantly, Grissom thought that Warrick probably assumed there was some kind of FBI fuck up, or even one of his own, that they didn’t want anyone to know about. If only that were the truth.

“She found out about their relationship before Will caught him,” Crawford answered, sentence falling like a guillotine.

A room full of crime scene investigators didn’t need any more than that to fill in the blanks, and all eyes were pinning him again.

Grissom took several deep breaths to avoid the sudden vertigo as Jack uttered the one secret he’d hoped no one would ever know out loud to his team.

“Jack -”

“I know and I’m sorry, Graham,” Jack interrupted. “I really didn’t want to come, to tell the truth, but you needed to be warned and this also happens to be the best lead we’ve had in more than a year.” Crawford’s eyes penetrated the sick fog that he was sinking into, urging Grissom to believe him. And damn it, he did.

Grissom released a sharp breath through his nose and pressed his lips together, nodding jerkily at Crawford. He did not look at his guys and pretended he didn’t hear any whispers.

“All right, Jack. All right. Tell me what you’ve got, damn you.”


End file.
